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October 01, 2007

queueing up the Soctoberfest hopefuls

Clockwise from top:

Superwash merino from Strings and Yarn, in the "flight of the bumblebee" colourway, with a wee toe already started (actually there's a whole other sock already but I don't like the fit, so it's on the block).

Superwash wool/tencel blend from Mama E, colourway "blood orange".

Superwash merino from Dyed in the Wool, "swamp thing" colourway.

Trekking XXL, in the fancifully-named colourway "146".

Just in case I run out (because, you know, it's so like me to exceed my own grandiose expectations) (in case it doesn't come across so early in the morning, that's sarcasm, folks) there should be another skein coming my way from Mama E soon. I knew it was a mistake to leave all of my sock yarn back home when I returned to school; I thought it would make me concentrate on other things but instead, somehow sock yarn found its way here (okay, the Trekking and the Mama E stuff were the ones I allowed myself to bring back from home after summer, so really I've only bought two).

Here's the thing. Because of my thesis project, I'm wearing these weird looking dresses every day. Some of them are brightly coloured, some of them are (and will be) muddy with heavily layered ink. Y'all may have noticed that I like colour a lot, and none of these sock yarns is particularly neutral. Already I have no prospects in the near future of finding anything in my new wardrobe that will not look hideous with my beautiful new kage bunshin socks,

which I have not yet worn (and it's just now begun to be cool enough, at least in the mornings).

The orange yarn I always envisioned as knee socks with a black ribbing and toe, just like the kage bunshins, and I think that will still be okay, as it's solid(ish) enough that I will find dresses to wear them with. But for the others, I can't decide. I love little socks like this:

and I love knee socks. I'm not so keen on socks of an in-between height. Right now I've mostly been wearing calf-length dresses, but the latest batch (of which I've got to finish at least one before I can leave the house this morning, as I've otherwise got nothing to wear) are all above the knee, and this fall and winter I'll be wearing them with leggings and tights. So I could just make little footie socks with all of this yarn and probably have enough to get two pairs out of a few of them or mix some of the colours in extra pairs, and these would be far enough away from the dresses, with solid leggings in between, that the variagated colours wouldn't clash so badly. Or I could make knee socks and throw caution to the winds, or wear my high boots all winter so that only a sliver shows out the top anyway. I'm leaning to the first option, because I'm an instant gratification sort of girl and I can make a lot of footies in the time it takes to knit all that leg. But footies don't keep the ankles warm all winter, do they? And Soctoberfest, coming as it does in the first cool days of autumn, seems to me to be about preparing for winter, putting up stores of warm things for later. To complicate things, I've just thought of two other possibilities: just make whatever socks the yarns call for and not give a rat's ass if they go with the dresses and wear them anyway (okay, that one is not so complicated), and make whatever socks the yarns call for and then put them away and not wear them until my project is over, which isn't the most appealing option. Throw into the mix that I have some awfully cute and awesome Mary Jane flats on the way that are going to look amazing with handknit footies. Jeez, why is this so hard?

Posted by jodi at October 1, 2007 06:56 AM | categories:  sticks and string

Comments

Posted by: liz at October 1, 2007 06:40 PM

Posted by: deirdre at October 2, 2007 03:07 PM

Posted by: mrspilkington at October 4, 2007 10:20 PM

Posted by: Lolly at October 5, 2007 10:34 AM